Increased reservoir ages and poorly ventilated deep waters inferred in the glacial Eastern Equatorial Pacific.

ABSTRACT: Consistent evidence for a poorly ventilated deep Pacific Ocean that could have released its radiocarbon-depleted carbon stock to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation has long been sought. Such evidence remains lacking, in part due to a paucity of surface reservoir age reconstructions required for accurate deep-ocean ventilation age estimates. Here we combine new radiocarbon data from the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) with chronostratigraphic calendar age constraints to estimate shallow sub-surface reservoir age variability, and thus provide estimates of deep-ocean ventilation ages. Both shallow- and deep-water ventilation ages drop across the last deglaciation, consistent with similar reconstructions from the South Pacific and Southern Ocean. The observed regional fingerprint lin

SUBMITTER: de la Fuente M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4507014 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature